Hello, Thanks for reading. I am a 61 year old male and have been in this country for 55 years. My parents bought me to the UK, I kept my Australian passport as it was easier to visit Australia with my Family and the kids can get dual nationality if wanted. I spent 9 years in the British army and have always lived in the UK and always worked and paid Tax and ni. I have been on DLA for the last 5 years and am receiving my army pension since I turned 60 from the DWP (same people that do DLA and PIP) I have been applying for PIP and they want paperwork on my rights to stay in the UK. I was only 6 when arrived in the country and both parents died 10 years ago. the only proof I have is a stamp in a 40 year old passport that gives me the right to remain in the uk indefinitely. I have used this passport every time I have been abroad (100 times) and not had any problems. Does anyone have an idea how to get round this. Tony

Hello I'm new to this forum and have emigrated to UK - I'm a dual citizen. I have left Australia as it was either that or divorce - husband missing his family that he had quite bad depression. I had good job but then got 32% pay cut over past 5 years due to decline in mining, took out credit cards to pay off debts, and then another to pay off etc. Got myself overcommitted and kept making the payments each month on time whilst they got higher and higher, spending over $5000K per month on payments. Substantial debt now of $160K with about 7 credit cards. I was going to make money on sale of our home (we had mortgaged for 17years) and the housing marketed plummeted in WA and we lost over $250K equity in the past 2 years. We sold and made $10K. Wont go into the details of how hard I worked at maintaining a quarter acre block to pristine condition. All of my efforts were futile and I was on a spiralling course. I had major total knee replacement in Nov 16 and had to take 6 weeks of week unpaid. (No holiday or sick pay on my contract). Then the sale of home in June 17 and then moved to UK as husband had enough of being away from family. I hoped to get a job on a project in UK in first 3 months - that didn't pan out and earning low wages here. The emails and calls are starting to come in and understandably - I have big debts and was always a regular and good payer - not now. I do have chronic hives and auto immune issue as result of years of chronic stress but I can't tell Dr's here full story as I needed medical pass to get my job. (Dr in Australia gave me enough medicine for first year before I left). Where to start with this debts and sorting it out? I've emailed the agencies (different collectors) a very brief email this week as I couldn't sleep. So stressed. Emailed them to say I'm in financial distress and unemployment since June / July and few other bits. Didn't say I'm overseas but if they check my Instagram they may see that. I've contacted an Australian bankruptcy company to get some insight and assistance on going bankrupt - as realistically that would have been my only option if I stayed in Australia (or insolvency). Just looking for some guidance on how to proceed, what to do or not do. I'm scared senseless I'm going to get a phone call to my husband (who doesn't know about the debt, yes that's right I kept it hidden) and get agency turned up at my home in UK. I'm definitely at fault and have to take responsibility (which I was until loss of job); I paid thousands of dollars each month back and only just made minimum payment each month, was a futile downward spiralling situation. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

Hi there, I have recently been contacted by the above company about an outstanding debt from my time in Aus, I left 5 years ago. They have called and emailed (not sure how they got my details plus my name has changed). Below is the email from them, firstly I don't work, I am a stay at home mum and secondly, I just need any advice possible on what my course of action should be - any advice much appreciated. 'My office has made several attempts to contact you to discuss your outstanding Commonwealth Bank Personal Loan matter that has been assigned to my office. Your balance as of today currently stands at $xxxxx with interest continuing to compound daily at the contractual rate of 15.9%p.a. For your reference, I have also attached the following documents: 1. A copy of the Notice of Assignment letter issued to your previous address confirming your matter has been assigned to our office. 2. A copy of the Final Notice letter issued to you today, outlining the current status of your matter. Our investigations confirm you are now residing in the UK and are no longer in Australia. With this being said, I kindly request you contact our office to resolve your outstanding balance. Unfortunately, if you do not make contact or if we are unable to resolve this matter with you, we will be transferring your matter to our UK agent, who will be instructed to make direct contact with you to recover and secure your balance. Please note, it is our preference to resolve your matter without the involvement of our overseas affiliates. Should your matter be transferred to our UK agent, the full balance plus all interest charges & transfer costs will be due and payable immediately. However, should you be of a mind to contact us, I will happily discuss a commercial outcome to settle your legacy matter in Australia. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards,'

Hi there I am looking for some help/advice please I returned to the UK approx 18 months after living in Australia for 4 years in NSW. I had a couple of credit cards still owing when I left. I received a phone call from Credit Corp this morning chasing $7500 on one of the cards (ANZ credit card). They were really horrific to me on the phone demanding payment in full by Friday this week. I told them that I couldn't pay this and they eventually offered to set up a payment plan of £400 per month again which again I said I couldn't afford. The guy got very angry saying that he needed to secure a payment plan with me today otherwise they would consider handing the debt over to a UK agency. He finished by saying he would email me my options and needed an answer in 24hrs after I had looked into my financial situation. Realistically I cannot afford to pay more than £100 per month after reading some threads on here I wonder what the best course of action can be. Would they hand this over to a UK firm? Is this legal if it is an Australian debt? He also said that if I offered less then £300/month on the payment plan they would need to see my UK bank statements, pay cheques and outgoing etc. ...Are they allowed to ask for this? Thanks guys for any help you can give me.

I lived in Australia till 2010. I was using a Credit Card and making all payments on time. Then in 2010 i moved back to India, and i do not intend on going back to Australia. I was making regular minimum payments till about 2013. Then my financial circumstances changed a bit and I was not able to make any further payments. I wrote to the bank asking for assistance in financial hardship, which is a facility that they provide. However my request was rudely rejected. I stopped making the payments, and I got reminders and legal action threats and so forth. I would get call early in the morning, however I did not answer any of them. This went on for a while and then they sold my debt to a collections company and on behalf of the bank they started contacting me in a rather aggressive way. Again, this went on for sometime and I got notices from the bank and the collections company about threats about legal action and so forth. The disturbing development is that, they got my work email id from somewhere, they may have tracked things down from social networking sites or pulled out details from the IP Address or something. I got an email this morning about some offers in settling the amount. I am still not in a situation to pay them back, I want to enquire the following details 1. Since the debt has been sold to a collections company, what can they do to pursue the debt here in India? 2. If they decide to sue me for this and get a judgment against me, what implications does this have on me residing here in India? I am not a resident of Australia. Do civil court judgments have any sort of jurisdiction here? 3. Would they call up my company and harass me? What can I do in such situations? 4. Is it a crime? Would I be punished for it? 5. Should I change my number and address where I live? However I cannot change my work location, now that they have the official email address. 6. If i get a legal notice from the court then what should i do? Could you please elabote on the answers?

Hello all, I came back from oz 9 months ago owing substantial debt , on unsecured loans and cc. I have decided the only option for me is to ignore the emails demanding payments. There is no way I can pay back the debts. What is likely to happen in the end? I know this is a pretty random&basic msg, but I want to try and kkkeep it fairly anonymous!

Hi all, Bit of a story. Let me state the facts. - I relocated to Australia in 2010 and left in May 2012. - I received an internal transfer from my company, whom I worked for a total of about 8 years (6+ in UK, 18 months in Oz) - Over the course of my employment I received a lot of stock options that mature over years. - The vast majority of these were awarded to me when I was in the UK and matured when I was in the UK. A few matured while in Australia but not a lot at all. - I left the company, left Australia and sold my stock options. - I sold my stock option in August 2012 when I was back in the UK. - I put the stock options on my UK tax return for 2012/2013. I have not tried to dodge tax but simply claimed the tax where I saw fit - I'm aware the issue is the ATO may not see it as black and white as this. Recently the ATO sent me a letter (in the UK) asking for the tax. It seems my company notified them as they are a benefit and now the ATO wants the tax. Does anyone have any idea what the ATO can do? How powerful is the ATO/HMRC relationship?

Hi everyone, I'm new here and have read threads about Austrlalian credit card debt etc but cant see any current ones open. I am being pursued by Stevensdrake. They were acting for credit corp. I left Western Australia in March 2009. My husband & I parted and he went to live in Asia. Our farm was sold last year and everything was paid off apart from my credit cards. The main one was with the National Australia bank with whom we had all our borrowings. I don't now why mine wasn't included as my husbands was settled from proceeds of the sale. I am guessing mine wasn't secured by the property. Credit corp wrote to me, I ignored it.Then I got a letter from Stevensdrake. I got advice from Citizens advice who advised me that they didn't think they would pursue it as it would be costly for them. The next thing was a court summons on 30th October last year. I asked for the original agreements which I received just before xmas and the terms and conditions of the agreements. I have spoken to two solicitors here but neither of them could help. Can anyone advise me as to the best course of action? I don't want a CCJ against me but I can't afford to pay either. I could offer a small amount to settle but the debt has increased so much from the original amount that there's no way I can pay the whole lot. Please, can anyone help!

Hoping for a bit of help on behalf of my mum.... Mum runs a small business maintaining lets and did some work for a woman who owns a house in the UK but now resides in Australia. The woman was invoice for c £2k, paid £100 then ignored the rest. Mum has an address and email for her in Australia and she has chased the debt to not effect. Is it possible/prudent to chase the debt further given she retains property in the UK? Mum could really do with the money and according to Facebook, this woman is rather enjoying a holiday in Bali! Thanks in advance.

VERY GRAPHIC, BE WARNED With the holiday season upon us, i am posting this commercial on Anti Drink Driving from Australia. Do you think we need such commercials instead of pussy footing around on the subject. Say post 9pm watershed

Hello,i've been married & living in Germany for about 4 years. I left behind at reasonable bank loan debt in Oz for which I could'nt make payments for since i migrated over to Germany. My wife wants to go back to holiday in Australia soon, and my question is can they take my Passport off me and not let me leave Australia to come back home to Germany?

Hi. We left Australia 6 months ago where we left a car behind that was financed. I owed nearly $20,000 on the car in my name only. I explained that we were leaving the country to the company it was leased to and asked for help. I asked them to take the car back, sell it, and then give me a loan for the balance which I would pay for monthly. They were entirely unhelpful and told me I had to pay the finance off and sell the car myself. I did not have 20k so my hands were tied. I left the car and ran away. I sent the keys back to the company. 6 months later I have received an email informing me that I owe $8550 to a debt agency in the Australia. They still have my address in Australia. If they look back through their records they will see some previous addresses in the UK, one of which I now live in again and own. My wife and I own two houses, both heavily mortgaged but there is equity in there. My question is what do I do? Morally, of course, I sell a house and repay the debt. But what about immorally? I seem to have 3 options: 1. Do nothing and hope they never find me (but if they do the debt will have risen hugely and I could lose a lot more than a house) 2. Offer a derisory full and final payment (I'm thinking about $2500), but this would surely be refused. 3. Ask for the interest to be frozen forever and pay an amount each month...perhaps $50. I have never been in this situation before so have no experience. Incidently we also have a $12k loan in Australia with 6 years out of 7 left to go (we are still paying it) And a credit card with $8k on it. We are still paying this as well but struggling with it. I know, its a mess. I don't want to try to excuse myself by giving you a sob story of how we got into debt, the fact is we are in it and Im keen to get advice. Thanks for your help. Feel free to call me a moron, Im not easily offended. Thanks.

Hi All, I was hoping for some insights into my predicament About 2.5 years ago I moved back to the UK from Australia with a substantial amount of credit card debit. I have been paying off the minimum payment for the last 2.5 with the exception of the last 6 months as I have been unable to make the minimum repayment due to reduced earnings (resulting from a chronic back issue). As such, Westpac has sold the account to Recoveries Corp who demanded the full amount ($23,001.26) by the 16th October 2012. I was unable to make this payment and therefore the debt will be referred to Mason Black Lawyers. I am able to offer them $450.00 per month to pay off this debt and am yet to hear if this is acceptable..... If these payment terms are not accepted, are you able to advise which legal steps Mason Black Lawyers will take to recover the debt from the UK? I am in the UK and am therefore not able to attend an Australian court. Any advice is much appreciated. KR, L

SWIM has a debt issue, where they are being chased by Credit Corp for a debt that was run up in Australia, in the New South Wales juristriction. A judgement was placed against him in December 2007, after running up credit card debts. Him & his wife left, to live in the UK in 2008. His wife started to receive phonecalls from Credit Corp two weeks ago, and the man received an email trying to contact him - Credit Corp does not have a postal address for him. Credit Corp have only left voicemails so far, stating that they have a judgement, and can sell the debt to a UK agency, who will be able to start recovery proceedings. Credit Corp does not know where the man in question lives, and he has not acknowledged the debt in any form, and has not made any payments towards it. Friends in Sydney have found out that in New South Wales, the Statute of Limitation for debt recovery with a court judgement is 12 years - which seems different from what has been posted here on several threads. He found this out through the Consumer Credit Legal Centre, NSW. What should he do? So far, they do not now where he lives, but the couple are extremely anxious about this, as they have young children and cannot afford to pay the debt. Here is the email (anonymous) that has been sent: I write regarding the above-mentioned account which has been assigned to Credit Corp from Westpac banking of Australia. Due to the fact the account is an escalated account, it has reached a critical level, and subsequently escalated to myself to make a final decision on. I have tried to contact you on all available numbers, yet I have received no response back from you. Management wish to provide you with one final chance to reconcile this matter on your own accord, prior to escalating it any further. At this point there are three options available to you; 1) Full and Final payment with a possible discount, depending on when the account is paid. The discounted amount for both accounts combined $26,XXX must be paid by the 25th May 2012. - This option immediately saves you $2,XXX, but also saves you on all ongoing interest and possible fees and legal costs. 2) 50% of the account up front followed by an amicable arrangement to pay the residual of the account. 50% of the account being $14,XXX this also must be paid by the 25th May 2012. 3) To have your account escalated into possible litigation and even outsourced to of overseas mercantile agents. Consequences may include litigation in your country of residence and adverse affects to your overseas credit rating. - Please be advised that you will incur any costs of any proceedings we may force upon you. As you are aware your Westpac Mastercard account Client Number XXXX has Judgement against you, this means we are able to proceed immediately with enforcement. Please see below for the possibly enforcement actions that may be bought against you. 1. A Summons to you to attend Court for examination by our Solicitors under oath, 2. An Attachment of Earnings Order (or Garnishee) against your employer for them to make payments direct to Credit Corp Services Pty Ltd from your salary, 3. A Writ or Warrant to instruct a Bailiff to seize and sell your personal property or land or home, 4. A Court Order to proceed with a Bank Garnishee against your bank for them to make payments direct to Credit Corp Services Pty Ltd from your account 5. Bankruptcy- Where a trustee will be appointed control over your assets i.e. XXXX Furthermore it is incumbent upon you to ensure that all personal details are fully updated with us at all times. If we have not received advisement and a firm resolution to your situation by 15/04/2012 this account may immediately be escalated without further notice.